Returning to the gold standard would enable citizens to toil less and reap more. That harbors untold social benefit right there. Thats one of the reasons they had to blast kennedy.....wanted to go back to the gold standard!
Poverty will never be solved. No matter how much resources are put into solveing, the only way to rise above paverty is for the individual to take it upon him or herslef. If that individual chooses not to rise above then there is nothing any amount of money or social programs can do for them except provide them a standard of living based off of the labor of others.
If that were true, then there would be no correlation between a person's station at birth, and their ultimate station. A glance at reality shows differently, of course. Life's a crapshoot, in most ways.